Lesson 10: What I've learned.

Throughout this course I have learned a lot.  I’m in Florida right now visiting family and everything I learned throughout this course came into play.  How white balance isn’t just an AWB on the top of your LCD.  How in-camera flash is not the most affective tool.  Portraits aren’t always what you imagine they will be. I learned how to look with my eyes and not the viewfinder to better composition with my photos.  I learned to look at the foreground; the background and whether to pull it forward or push it back with aperture.  

Some things I learned while shooting, were things you can only learn while shooting.  I learned that kids are terrible models if they’re hungry, tired or bored.  That you need to consistently revert to a process of checking your setting. Aperture-check, Shutter Speed-check, ISO check, White Balance-check, Focus-check. (Battery-check).   All of the lessons throughout this course have emphasized and helped me to become a better photographer.  I think I most benefited from the White Balance lesson as well as the Portrait and Rule of Thirds Lesson.  

If I were to begin another class similar to this one, I would be most interesting in “How to read light,” class.  It seems unfair that so many photographers since its invention have had the knowledge of how to read light from its source and its reflection in order to mentally find the correct exposure whereas most digital photographers now use the meter inside their camera or a other hand-held light meters.  I would light to be able to judge a situation with just my eyes—but I guess that sort of things comes from years and years of practice and understanding.  I thoroughly enjoyed this class and am grateful for the knowledge it has brought me through trial and error.

Portraits

Portraits/Shutter Speed

Rule of Thirds/Shutter Speed

Portraits

Portraits

Aperture

Rule of Thirds/Landscape

White Balance

Lesson 9: Portraits

Portraits of people might be my favorite thing to do.  Let me be specific actually--candid portraits.  I enjoy seeing people looking natural and beautiful in a way that doesn't portray what they are trying to show, but more so of who they really are.  I love catching glimpses of people during moments of their lives when they forget to do anything but be.  So, naturally for this assignment-I did the opposite of what I normally love to do.  I took posed portraits of my niece to help me practice doing posed people photos while I'm visiting family in Orlando.  I had a bit of issues in some areas-for example: Telling the subject how to move, pose and model for me.  I had absolutely no idea what to tell her because she wanted photos with a globe of the world and I wasn't sure how to fit that in.  I kept telling her to put her hand on her hip, look at me and smile before then stating "Stay in the same pose, I didn't light that correctly."  I had difficulty focusing on my lighting and my subject at the same time.  You know, there is no pressure when you're taking candid photos and the subject has no idea you were taking their shots in the first place.  I plan to add more of these throughout the week, however these are my first for this project.

Although portraits are technically people, my plans for portraits flopped this week when my nephew got sick.  However a surprise landed in the backyard at my sisters house earlier tonight.  I figured why not?  Animals need portraits too.  =]

Lesson 8: Better Composition

            I did something I never do in photography because I have very little interest in it.  I took photos of a car.  Its not that I don't love the editing and the photographic process, it's just that I don't know the first thing about cars.  I mean they look cool sometimes, but for me...they're mostly get from Point A to Point B and the requirements for them are four doors, automatic windows and a functioning CD player.  I have a few action photography friends who make their living off of car photography, so I thought, why not? There were a few things I learned while shooting these today. One: When someone asks you where to park their car for a shot-make sure its not into the sun.  I had a very difficult time correcting the shadows in the FRONT of the car because of this.  Two: If you are shooting RAW, keep an eye out on your ISO.  I'm accustomed to shooting JPEG, simply for the sake of my computers hard drive and usually I can shoot at a higher ISO without worrying about too much noise and correcting later, however while shooting at a higher ISO in RAW format created so much noise I might as well have never taken the shot.  Three: Choose a low traffic destination.  I cannot tell you how irritating it is to have to stop what you're doing because people are leering out of their high speeding cars to see what you're doing on what should have been a back road.  I would like to try these again sometime.  It's better to experiment with how to use composition with a car and its curves a few times before really learning what you like.   In a few of the photo's you'll see a gas mask.  My boyfriend asked for photo's of his car with some of his military gear for a local military car show.  It's supposed to represent the Armed Forces and cars.  I'm not sure the gas mask was the best prop to display this, but it was the one he requested.  If you guys have any criticism for me and would like to tell me how you normally take car photo's, tips are welcome =].